Monsters That Love
by reverse-will
Summary: L is currently involved in the Kira case, but he quickly suspects supernatural activity is involved. He decides to bring in an unwitting expert, who is a bit freaked out when she is brought into the case in an unconventional way. Loosely based on the canon story. Eventual LxOC. Rated M for future mature content, as well as OC being a little potty-mouthed.
1. Chapter 1

It was only a few blocks away from my house when I saw the flashing lights behind me. I pulled my car over into the right lane and onto the shoulder, expecting the cop to pass me on the way to wherever he was going. Instead he pulled up right behind me. Shit! I started pawing through the messy stack of insurance cards in my center console to find the current one. Why didn't I throw out the expired ones?! The cop made his way up to the drivers' side window, and I rolled it down.

"License and registration, please." The big reflective sunglasses hid anything other than indifference. I pulled out another insurance card, this one three years old. Crap. I went back to digging in the expanding pile of red-and-white cards in the passenger seat.

"Just the license will work if you have that," he frowned at me, sounding bored. I did know where my license was, at least – I pulled it out of my wallet and handed it to him.

"Thank you, Miss Cosgrove," he said as he almost immediately handed my license back to me. "Please step out of the vehicle and come with me." Uh, okay. I got out of the car after grabbing my purse. He was already walking back towards his cruiser, so I started following him.

"Um … can I ask what this is about?" I inquired. That came out much more timidly than I intended.

"You were going thirty-seven in a thirty-five zone," he responded without even looking back. Um, what? He opened the back door and gestured for me to get in.

"Am I being arrested?" My nervousness shot up exponentially. What the hell? All this for going two miles over the speed limit?

"Only if I need to arrest you." He folded his arms across his chest, clearly irritated despite the eye-disguising glasses. I timidly slipped into the back seat, and he shut the door after snatching my purse away. I wasn't too happy about him taking it, but I decided it would be pretty fruitless to resist. I looked around as he made his way around the cruiser - metal netting covered the back seat windows and separated the back from the front. The cop got in the drivers' seat, then started pulling into the road.

"What about my car? I can't just leave it on the side of the road! In this part of town, I'll come back to it completely stripped and sitting on blocks!" I cried. Goddammit.

"Someone will come to take it back to your house." He didn't even bother to glance at me as he drove past the turn to my house and continued driving towards the police station. Wait … they didn't even have my keys or my address. How were they going to get it back to my house? Well, I supposed they could use a tow truck, and my address was on my license.

As I sat there waiting for him to take me to the police station or wherever, I started thinking about the absurdity of the situation. Apparently the only thing I did wrong was going two miles over the speed limit. What the fuck? If cops even bothered to pull someone over for that, they wouldn't even write a ticket, unless they were really out to get you. I knew this because I had been pulled over many times before for speeding. I certainly had never been arrested (or whatever the hell this was) before. Well, not much I could do about this now. Even if the back doors were able to be opened from the inside, my only option was to toss myself out of a moving vehicle. That didn't sound very appealing either.

The cop pulled us into the nearest police station. He let me out and led me inside, and I was relieved that he hadn't forgotten my purse, although he wasn't going to give it back to me. He held it awkwardly away from him – I guess so no one would think it belonged to him. I followed him through registration and back into a nonpublic area of the station. Passing cops gave us brief looks of curiosity, but no one spoke. My personal cop continued to lead me farther back, and down a white-painted brick hallway with occasional gray metal doors breaking the monotony. It was long and winding, and the further we went the less lighting there was. I was getting rather creeped out on top of the nervousness that I was already feeling. Finally the cop opened an unmarked door, and I followed him in. Inside was what appeared to be a stereotypical interrogation room – long beat-up metal table and a few equally beat-up chairs. There was the "don't-look-at-me-I'm-not-a-one-way-mirror" mirror that covered most of one wall. There were three other men inside the room with us. Two were dressed in black suits, with matching reflective sunglasses and communication earpieces. The third man was standing behind the table, covered in a long trench coat and a fedora pulled down over his face so I could only see the reflection of glasses underneath. And on the table itself was an open white Mac laptop, with only a single large "L" in Cloister Black font on the screen. I heard someone shut the door behind me.

"Good afternoon," said a distorted voice that seemed to come from nowhere. "I'm glad you could join us, Victoria Cosgrove." I suddenly felt very dizzy, and as my vision faded, I could hear someone rushing to catch me as I fainted.


	2. Chapter 2

I was so stressed that I promptly passed out cold. One of the black-suited guys managed to catch me before I split my head open on the concrete floor. The cop that started off my adventure by pulling me over for the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard of was long gone. Someone pressed a paper cup of water into my hand, which I slowly drank after being assisted into one of the chairs. Eventually the dizziness passed, and I felt lucid again. Unfortunately the big "L" on the screen of the sentient laptop was staring me right in the face.

"I apologize, Miss Cosgrove," droned the laptop in its computerized voice, "It appears that today's events have caused a significant amount of mental strain."

I stared dumbly at the screen with my mouth slightly hanging open.

"Let me introduce myself. I am L, the world's greatest detective. I am known for having never lost a case in my entire career. Perhaps you are familiar with my work?"

Uh … nope. Did not ring a bell. "I'm sorry, I don't think I've heard of you before today," I said meekly. For all I knew this was some crazy person, or I was on the set of a reality show, but even through the voice changer this guy came across as intimidating.

There was a distinct pause after that, and even with their sunglasses I could tell that the two suits were exchanging a glance. Obviously I was not keeping up very well with current (and not-so-current) events. The trench coat guy was still standing quietly at the other side of the table.

After a moment, L got back to business. "At any rate, I summoned you here because I need someone of your expertise for my current case."

He needs a freelance internet writer?

"While there are many who claim to have a vast understanding of the supernatural and the ability to contact otherworldly beings, you are the only one who has had any proven accomplishments in these areas."

Oh, _that_. Wait, what? One of the few people to actually take me seriously was this guy? Shouldn't a pretentious super detective be one of the first people to slam me as a delusional fraud? Most people did, that's for sure. Mr. Detective must be scraping at the bottom of the barrel – probably having a tough time with this case and desperately trying to avoid ruining his perfect streak. I sighed. What the fuck was happening to me today?

Apparently oblivious to my puzzlement, L continued. "I would like to put you on a plane to Tokyo, Japan within the hour."

"Whoa! Wait! I don't even know what you want me to do or who you are, and you expect me to just fly to the other side of the world for god-knows-what?" I exclaimed.

"To be quite frank, you do not have a choice in the matter and refusal will be met with severe repercussions. However, you will be well compensated. $50,000 will be immediately deposited into your bank account. Thereafter, you will receive another $50,000 each week, followed by a final bonus of $500,000 once the case is resolved successfully."

_Holy shit_. Of course, I didn't miss the clear yet vague threat, but honestly the thought of the money was very appealing (well, even more than it would be normally). Work was drying up, my credit cards were maxed out, and I was starting to highly regret buying such a large house for a single woman. If that kept up I would soon be living in a box and washing dishes for a living. And hey, I apparently didn't have a choice so I may as well enjoy the benefits, right? And what the hell, my life was getting boring anyway. I thought that I might have been going a little insane after all the stress today to even consider this, but I was also a little too insane to care about what I was getting into at this point.

"I will take your silence to mean that you agree to these conditions. Watari will provide you with the necessary documents for your new identity and give you a brief summary of your duties during your flight. I will meet with you in person once you arrive in Tokyo to discuss the case further. Watari, I am done here."

The screen on the laptop went blank, and Trench Coat Guy (who apparently was Watari) shut it down and packed it into a briefcase with multiple locks. The two suits started moving towards the door.

Trench Coat Guy, briefcase in hand, approached me. "I am Watari, Miss," he began. "I will be accompanying you on your trip. Please feel free to ask if you need anything." Before, all I could see of his face under the fedora were his glasses, but now that he was closer, I could also see a fluffy white mustache.

One of the suits produced my purse from somewhere and handed it to me. It felt much lighter. Dammit. I wondered how many of my things they decided to take out.

Watari led me out of the building, not the same way I came in, but through a secluded back entrance. The parking lot there was almost empty except for a black limousine – and yes, that's where we were headed. He opened the back door for me and helped me in.

"Please help yourself to any of the refreshments." I still couldn't see much of his face, but his voice had a kindly tone to it.

After he shut the door, I looked around the inside of the limo. It seemed much bigger than it looked from the outside. I poked through the compartments and fridge, and discovered that there was a nice selection of alcohol, drinks and snacks. Alcohol sounded good after everything that had happened today, so I made myself a cranberry vodka. I dug around and selected some mixed nuts to go with it. There were far more sweet snacks to choose from, but I was more of a salty snack person.

Shortly after getting settled with my drink and nuts, I felt the limo start moving. I was still a bit in shock, so I spent the ride mostly chewing slowly on the nuts like a cow with its cud, trying to process everything that happened. Watari stayed quiet during the ride and didn't try to talk, which was fine with me. I was in a daze and didn't pay much attention to how much time passed. Eventually we arrived at the VIP part of the airport and boarded a private plane. As I followed Watari up the steps, I suddenly realized that I had none of my belongings with me other than my purse. I still needed to check and see what exactly was missing from it. Wondering what I was going to do without any changes of clothes or a toothbrush, I plopped down in the cushy chair that Watari motioned for me to sit in. I also wondered about how I was going to function in Japan – luckily I had learned a fair amount of Japanese after being interested in the culture, although I still struggled with kanji.

"Miss Cosgrove, give me just a few moments and I will return with your documents and give you more information about what you will be doing with us," said Watari, as he passed by me into another section of the aircraft.

As I waited, I kicked my legs against the front of the seat and beat on the armrests with my palms like a little kid. Well, the cranberry vodka was kicking in at least. Soon I would be meeting this L in person, although I partly suspected the asshole would just have me meeting "in person" with another computer. I wondered what he must be like. Probably some crusty old man, judging from his rudely direct I-don't-fuck-around speech earlier. I added some raspberry noises to my childish display of beating up the chair while I waited for Watari to come back.


	3. Chapter 3

Someone entered my section of the plane shortly after we took off, and I quickly sat up and went back to behaving like an adult. A kindly-looking well-dressed old man walked in with a pleasant smile on his face. It took me a moment to realize that this was Watari without his hat and trench coat. He made his way towards me with a stuffed manila envelope in his hands, then sat across from me and released the hidden table from its compartment between us. Neat. He pulled out the contents of the envelope and placed them in front of me.

"These are the documents for your new identity, as well as a credit card for your use while you are with us," he said as he spread them out on the table. Among other things, there was a drivers' license that was almost exactly like my real one, a passport (I briefly wondered where they got the photo of me for it), and the credit card. Of course, everything had my new temporary name on it. Instead of Victoria Cosgrove, I was … "Victory Hargrove". Victory? Really? At least it was similar enough to my real name that I could recover if I started to mess it up.

While Watari waited patiently, I opened my purse to put everything away. I had intended to do inventory of my purse for the past several hours anyway, but managed to keep forgetting. My phone and keys were gone. Except for a few dollar bills, my wallet was completely empty. None of my own seven credit cards, drivers' license, or random store discount cards was left. Oh, they did leave my spare tampon and birth control pills (with the prescription label torn off of course). That was nice of them.

"L will give you more information when we arrive to his location," began Watari as I finished with my purse, "But essentially, he strongly suspects supernatural, possibly demonic, involvement in his current case. Have you heard anything about Kira in the news yet?"

I nodded. "I heard something about someone going by Kira taking credit for the heart attack deaths of some criminals." I didn't know details beyond that since the victims were in Japan and I was in the United States, and as previously demonstrated, I didn't exactly keep up with news very well.

Watari smiled kindly and nodded back. "L has ruled out poisoning and other ways Kira could have arranged the deaths, which is why he has requested your help."

Requested, my ass. I wondered what entailed the "severe repercussions" L threatened me with if I had blown him off. But I decided not to shoot the messenger, especially since he seemed like such a nice grandfatherly type of person.

Watari put the table back in its compartment and stood up. "It will take us approximately twelve hours to arrive in Japan, and I imagine you are already very tired, so please feel free to use the private bedroom that's been prepared for you."

The plane had a bedroom?

Indeed it did. After Watari gave me some bottled water, I shut the door behind me and dropped my empty-feeling purse on the floor. This plane's bedroom was indistinguishable from one you would find in a house. A nice house, that is. There was even a small attached bathroom that included a shower. I kept my clothes on except for my shoes, and settled underneath the covers in the bed. It was comfy enough and I was exhausted enough that I quickly went to sleep.

I slept for most of the flight, and we landed in Tokyo around 8am … according to my watch. Watari told me it was actually 11_pm_ in Tokyo. Ugh, this jet lag was going to be a bitch. We got in another limo, similar to the one we used before the flight. I made another cranberry vodka for old times' sake. We drove for what seemed like a long time – Tokyo was very large, and much more congested than any other large city I'd been in (not that I'd been to many outside of the Southern US). Finally we arrived at a large, very expensive-looking hotel. I felt extremely underdressed and self-conscious in my t-shirt and jeans as Watari led me to the elevator bank. Just before we reached them, Watari took a hard turn to a private elevator that was a discreet distance away from the commoners' elevators. He had to use a key card just to get us inside. Ooh, fancy. We took it up to the top floor penthouse suite. If it was a regular hotel elevator, it would have taken forever with all the inevitable stops, but this one was used for just a few of the most luxurious rooms. I literally started sweating with nervousness – not only was L apparently the best detective in the world, but he was someone who could afford to stay at _this_ place. I imagined someone like Hugh Hefner, with his fancy robe and maybe a couple of blondes hanging off of him for good measure. Watari politely ignored my distress as he just stood on the other side of the elevator, hands folded in front of him and his friendly grandpa smile on his face.

We then went through a fancy entryway, which I was too busy internally freaking out to pay attention to, and came to a huge white door. Watari unlocked it and let me in. The penthouse was almost sickeningly opulent, with everything in a white and gold color scheme. It had one hell of a view though – it seemed like there were no walls, only huge windows. Not that I was in the state of mind to appreciate it right now. Watari led me around to a sitting area away from the front room. The sofa was facing directly away from me, but I could see someone there – well, the back of someone's head anyway. As I came closer, he turned his head partway towards me. I truly learned the meaning of the expression "to bore into someone's soul with their eyes" as he stared at me with terrifying intelligence. He was the complete opposite of what I expected, but I knew immediately that this was L.


	4. Chapter 4

L slowly stood up, but remained hunched over. Even so, he was still a little taller than me. He came around the side of the sofa and approached me.

"Victoria Cosgrove." It was a statement, not a question, and his tone and face were unreadable.

I nodded dumbly. I didn't trust myself to speak, especially with his gaze still pinned on me.

He stuck a hand out toward me. "I am L."

I took his hand and shook it. He didn't do anything obviously awkward, but he hesitated just enough for me to tell that this was uncomfortable for him.

"From now on, you will be known exclusively as Victory Hargrove," he said, already turning away and walking back to the sofa. "You will refer to me not as 'L', but as 'Ryuzaki'."

Wow, he was just as abrupt in person as he was through the computer and voice changer.

He poked a finger toward the armchair next to his sofa. "Please sit."

I sat. In front of us was a large coffee table almost spilling over with its heavy load. There was a large laptop and other computer equipment, with half-eaten food and pieces of hard candy scattered around. Tall piles of folders and papers surrounded them like the walls of a fort, which L was now rooting through.

While he was occupied with something other than boring holes into me with his eye lasers, I took the opportunity to look at him better. I no longer felt underdressed. He was wearing a wrinkled long-sleeved white shirt and worn jeans, and was barefoot. I was terrible at estimating men's ages to begin with, but if someone told me he was anywhere from fifteen to forty years of age I would have easily believed them. At first glance I would have said that he was white, but looking at his face, I could see hints of something more exotic. The dark circles under his eyes would have made anyone else look exhausted, but the intensity of his gaze made him look anything but. It seemed like anything he looked upon should spontaneously catch on fire.

Finally he finished digging out what he wanted, and thrust a somehow-not-on-fire folder and photos at me.

"Everything of importance is written in English as well as Japanese," he said as he reclaimed his spot on the sofa. He reached over and popped a piece of candy in his mouth, then pulled his knees up to his chest and folded his arms over his legs. This behavior clashed with his serious personality to the point that it was absurd. I watched his cheek bulge with the candy for a moment before I realized he was staring at me again, and that I was probably supposed to be looking at the file and photos I was holding.

The file folder had some kanji on the front, and underneath it read "Yagami, Light". I flipped it open and the first page had a photo paperclipped to it; it was a portrait shot of a handsome young Japanese man with unusually light hair (probably bleached or dyed). There was a lot of information gathered on him, judging from the number of pages, and I skimmed through it. Light was a high school graduate, and about to take his exam to get into To-Oh University, which was apparently a big deal. He had literally perfect grades and had won all sorts of awards and accolades at school. His father was the police chief. From what I took away, Light seemed to be a very bright and upstanding, if somewhat boring, guy. I looked at the stack of photos that were sticking out of the file. Almost all of them looked like they were surveillance camera stills, and were timestamped from just a few days ago. Most of these were Light in what appeared to be his bedroom. At first they just seemed to be pictures of him studying. Yep, confirmed my suspicions that he was boring. When I went through them again, though, I noticed a few little odd things, like how he would stare into a corner, and not in the way one would if bored or daydreaming. Sometimes he had his mouth open or had an expression on his face like he was listening and responding to something. I stopped at one photo – it looked like there was something in the corner that Light was staring at. It was difficult to see though, as Light seemed to like to keep his room dark except for his desk lamp. I swear I could see eyes … fingers … whatever it was seemed humanoid, but if so, it was large enough to tower over most people.

"See something?" whispered a voice right beside my ear. I screamed and literally jumped out of my chair.

While I was trying to make out what the dark figure in the photo was, L had gotten up and came around behind me. I looked back at him from my crouch on the floor, and he was standing next to my chair, one finger in his mouth and a faint smirk of amusement on his face.

"Is everything all right?" called Watari as he wheeled a large cart into the room. Crap, I had completely lost track of him after seeing L face-to-face. I didn't even realize that Watari had left us alone.

"Everything's fine," said L as I gathered up the scattered papers and photos and slunk back to my chair, flushed with embarrassment.

Watari parked the cart next to the coffee table, bent down and gathered up trash and dirty dishes in his arms, then deposited them into the bin in the bottom of the cart. He had to repeat this several times to get it all, and the bin was nearly spilling over when he was done. Then he took the dome off of the large plate that was sitting on top of the cart, and revealed a strawberry cake. It was so pretty that it didn't even look like real food. But apparently it was, since Watari cut two slices out of it and passed them to L and me on little plates.

L jumped back up on the sofa, and then crouched like he was about to take a shit on it. Instead he forked about a third of the piece of his cake into his mouth. I inwardly shrugged and took a (smaller) bite of mine. Oh my God! I normally didn't like sweets, but this was the best fucking cake I'd ever had in my life. It wasn't long before I finished it, and if Watari wasn't already wheeling the cart back to wherever it came, I would have been tempted to ask for another slice.

"Now then," started L as he was still chewing the last bite of his cake, "I showed you Light Yagami's file because he is my main suspect for the true identity of Kira."

"But he seems so ordinary. Well, not ordinary but boring," I stammered awkwardly.

"Yes, but seventy-four percent of the time the perpetrator initially appears ordinary or boring. As they say, 'It's always the quiet ones'."

Maybe it was just me, but I couldn't help but feel like he was patronizing me a little.

L continued. "I won't go through the details, but I have narrowed down all possible suspects to a small handful. Although, I have deduced that there is a ninety-nine-point-two percent chance that Light is Kira."

Annoyance slowly started becoming stronger than intimidation. What kind of arrogant twat leaps around like a monkey, eats like a pig, and then has the nerve to talk down to me with bullshit random percentages?

My irritation apparently showed, because L paused to stare at me for a moment.

"Ah, I apologize for my appearance," said L as he scratched the back of his head, which was not doing much for said appearance. "You see, I work best when I am comfortable, and I abhor anything covering my feet. Also, I must sit like this because if I were to sit normally, it would reduce my deductive reasoning skills by forty percent …"

Okay, that was it.

"You are so full of shit!" I shouted, startling myself with my intensity.

L's eyes widened but his expression immediately became blank. " … Excuse me?"

"There's no way you can actually come up with percentages that exact for random things! What, was there a scientific study done on how well you could think in different sitting positions? That's just how you like to sit for some reason!" It briefly crossed my mind that it might not be such a great idea to chew on the world's greatest detective, especially on our first meeting. But too late now, might as well go for the gold. "How am I supposed to take you seriously when you're spouting pseudo-intelligent bullshit at me? What next, are you going to tell me that you use one hundred percent of your brain at once?"

L thoughtfully chewed on his thumbs. I felt a bit chilled as I realized I might find out what his "severe repercussions" were.

L then broke out in a surprisingly genuine-looking smile. "You know, no one's ever called me out on that before. I'm impressed."


	5. Chapter 5

My outburst had managed to break the ice between L and me, and we were able to actually start talking about the case.

I pulled out the photo where I thought I could see a figure in a darkened corner of Light's room. L stared intently at me while chewing on one of his thumbs. Even though I had humanized him to me somewhat, his gaze still felt intense and intimidating.

"Well, I thought I could make something out in this corner," I began, pointing at the area in the photo that Light was staring into. "There seem to be eyes right here and I can see an outline of a face and part of a body … "

L slowly came around behind me again, but this time he was considerate enough to make sure he didn't startle me. He leaned over one of my shoulders to peer at the photo, close enough to me that I could clearly hear him chewing on his thumbnail. I would have expected someone like L to have poor hygiene, but he smelled clean and his breath just had a small whiff of sweetness from the cake he had eaten earlier.

"Can you see it too?" I asked after listening to several seconds of munching sounds.

He slowly turned his face towards me, and his lips were only a couple of inches away from mine. I suppressed a shiver as I side-eyed him – he was getting _way_ too far into my personal space for my comfort.

"No," he said softly, and it took me a second to remember the question he was responding to. "But that's why I brought you here." He finally stood up, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

L slowly walked around me and returned to his squat on the sofa. "Kira has made several references to death gods, and when I reviewed this particular video "- he gestured towards the pile of photo captures – "It was obvious that Light was communicating with something that no one else could see."

L pulled a dainty little teacup on a saucer towards him on the coffee table and began dropping sugar cubes into it one by one until it was almost full. Then he pulled an equally dainty teapot out from between two stacks of papers and poured tea over the sugar cubes. It looked like a tea set a little girl would love, except that even little girls wouldn't try to use that much sugar. God, L was so weird.

"So, you didn't assume that Light was just being psychotic?" I asked.

"No, there are too many coincidences." L paused to slurp his wet sugar loudly. "Especially considering this method of killing that no one can figure out." He pulled a box full of video tapes from underneath the coffee table and started pawing through it. "If you can see something in the photos, perhaps you can hear it as well if you watch the original video."

He pulled out a tape, stood up, and dumped the remainder of the contents of his teacup into his mouth. He actually had to chew his drink before swallowing it. "Please follow me."

He shuffled off with his shoulders stooped over and I walked after him. His shirt was loose so I couldn't see his frame well earlier, but after watching him walk from the back, I could see the shape of his shoulder blades poke through. Wow, he was skinny. His jeans were also baggy on him, but I estimated that I could shove my leg maybe thigh-deep in them at most before it got stuck. I told my stupid mind to shut up when I realized I was staring at his butt and thinking about wearing his clothes.

We entered yet another room. Random furniture was clumped around a bank of monitors. I guessed that this didn't come standard even with the penthouse suite. L pushed the tape into the slot at the bottom of one of the monitors, and I sat down in the nearest place - a bench that looked like it had been meant for outdoor use. L grabbed a remote control off of a nearby table, and then proceeded to sit (well, squat) right next to me. Next to me as in close enough for his arm and leg to touch me. I side-eyed him again, but he seemed oblivious that he was doing anything inappropriate. I decided I would punch him in the neck if he tried to put his arm around me or anything. But he just hugged his knees to his chest and stuck his favorite thumbnail in his mouth.

I waited for what must have been at least a full minute, watching our reflections in the blank screens and listening to him chew.

"Uh … L … I mean, Ryuzaki?" I asked nervously.

"Hmm?" He responded, also staring at our reflections in the monitors.

"Aren't we supposed to be watching something?"

"Oh! Yes! Well, I just needed to wait for the equipment to warm up." he obviously lied while mashing buttons on the remote.

Light's empty bedroom popped up on the nearest screen. L fast-forwarded until Light came in and settled down at his desk with his studying paraphernalia. It was quick, but I also saw something else enter with Light, and my breath caught. I could feel L partially turn his head towards me at my reaction. He pressed another button on the remote and the video played at normal speed.

Now that I was watching it actually move, it was a little easier to make out the dark figure. He was dressed all in black and had a grotesque mask-like face that appeared to be crudely sewn onto his neck. Like I'd seen in the photo, he was very tall – possibly around seven feet or more – but impossibly thin.

"Liiight! I want to play Mario Golf!" he whined in Japanese, which was one of the last things I'd expect such an intimidating creature to say.

"Ryuk, I'm busy! I need to research more criminals. Be quiet and eat an apple." An irritated Light pulled an apple out of his bag and pitched it at the creature like he was trying to injure him rather than give him a snack. Ryuk managed to catch it anyway and ate the entire thing in three bites, including the core.

L paused the video, and I turned my head to look at him – and bumped noses with him. I jumped but stayed in my seat this time. Apparently I was starting to get used to L creeping up to me. I leaned back from him to avoid touching him.

"Thoughts?" asked L, his bottomless dark eyes gazing at me.

"Well, that creature appears to be some sort of demon, or maybe a reaper. I think the Japanese equivalent is a shinigami."

L gave me a lopsided smirk. "Just as I thought. However, I cannot see this shinigami myself. Basically what I see is Light yelling at empty space and an apple being eaten by nothing. Kira had left taunting messages for me about 'gods of death' loving apples, but I didn't think he meant it so literally."

We looked back at the screen and L unpaused the video. Ryuk was being obediently quiet but was fidgeting. Light removed a black notebook from the false bottom of a desk drawer, opened it, and looked back and forth between it and his computer monitor while writing in it.

L tugged a few photos from under a pile of papers on the other side of the bench and showed them to me. They were enhanced close-ups of the notebook – I thought that was only possible on shows like CSI and was impossible to do in real life, but apparently there was some way to do it. Light had written down what appeared to be a list, mostly in kanji - probably names from the look of it.

"It's a list of criminals' names, some of which have dates, times, and descriptions of death. The victims all died exactly as described and at the exact time as written in the notebook. If there was no description written, the victim simply died of a heart attack," L said.

"So you're saying that this was written _before_ these people died?" I asked incredulously.

"Exactly. I suspect that writing in the notebook may somehow cause the deaths, but it's completely illogical. I suppose that there's a small chance it's somehow precognition or the shinigami telling him this information, but since Light doesn't seem disturbed by the ensuing deaths, I would say it's only around a two percent … "

I gave L a death glare.

" … Anyway, there's another video I'd like to show you," L said with a suspicious smirk, his eyes half lidded.

I inwardly sighed as he rummaged through another box of tapes. What was he going to subject me to now?


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:** Whoa, I made L such a perv in this chapter =D I usually like to write a little further ahead before putting up a new chapter, but it's been two months since I last updated, so here you go. In case anyone noticed, I also tweaked a few of the previous chapters to make Victoria more fluent in Japanese - otherwise it's going to start being a huge pain in the butt to write the story the way I want. Thanks so much for all the reviews/faves/follows - I've gotten way more than what I was expecting!

**Chapter 6:**

L switched out the video tapes in the VCR and settled back on the bench, again uncomfortably close to me. He didn't space out this time, and pressed "play" on the remote.

This video was timestamped the next day after the previous one we watched. L fastforwarded until Light entered with his school bag and a plastic store bag, Ryuk following behind him. Light had an even more irritated look on his face than the previous day.

"I suspect that Light managed to find out about the surveillance since the previous day," whispered L.

"Liiight! Why won't you talk to me? You promised that we could play Mario Golf today!" Ryuk whined.

Light put on a forced-looking smile. "I think I'll leave the television off for today. It's easier to concentrate when it's QUIET. When it's noisy, I don't feel like keeping apples in my room." He dumped the contents of the plastic bag onto his desk. Were those … yep, they were porno mags. He sat in his desk chair, crossed his legs tightly at the knees, and paged slowly through the magazine while propping the side of his head up with his arm. I couldn't see his face very well from this angle, but even from the back he looked bored.

"Not that I've really watched a guy look at porn, but this isn't quite what I would imagine it would look like," I said as I watched Light swing his crossed legs back and forth and blow out sighs of boredom.

"What do you think it would look like?"

I turned towards L, and saw him grinning obscenely at me with his eyes half-lidded. If any other person looked at me like that, I would have run away screaming for fear of being raped. But for some reason, I just felt irritated. "I'm not answering that. Was there even a point to showing this to me?"

"Just making sure I wasn't the only one who found it odd. His father almost had a breakdown just at the thought of Light possessing porn, so I didn't take his opinion seriously."

If I had thought even one second about what I was going to say next, I would have kept my mouth shut. Of course, I didn't. "Well, you're a man. Shouldn't you know what it looks like for a guy to jack off?"

L's wide grin changed into an open-mouthed wide grin. "Well, I'm personally much more animated and loud, but then I am not exactly 'normal' and don't do a lot of things the way 'normal' people would."

My face burned and I buried it in my hands. L unhelpfully stayed quiet and didn't attempt to change the subject, but I could feel his gaze boring into my head.

I desperately tried to think of something to say to get the conversation off L's dick. Wait a second … "You showed this to Light's _father_?"

"Yes. You saw that his father is the chief of police, correct? He is a part of my investigation team. I put cameras in every room of their house, and I think he was afraid that I would be too interested in watching his daughter bathe and use the toilet. You know, masturbating to her."

Ugh! Did this weirdo just not have any idea how fucking awful he was being? No, from the mischievous look in his eyes I could tell he knew exactly what he was doing. Perverted little turd.

"Speaking of the investigation team, they will be arriving in the morning. It's already almost three AM, so I think this is a good point to stop and show you to your room that I've prepared. I know you slept through most of the flight, but I'm sure you could use some rest or at least some time to process what I've shown you so far."

How did he know I slept through the flight? He hadn't had a chance to talk to Watari in private since I arrived. At any rate, I was ready for a break from L.

I followed L's bony back to the other side of the penthouse, arriving at a small hallway with a bathroom and a few bedrooms. How huge was this place? I wondered how much it cost to stay up here. Probably more than what I would earn in a lifetime. L let me in one of the bedrooms, then followed me in and shut the door behind him. He sure as shit better not be planning on staying in here. He showed me around the room, which I could have easily checked out myself. I decided not to think too much about how he'd gotten clothes in my size and gathered the same brands of toiletries that I used – which probably weren't all available in Japan.

When L was done, he pulled a flip phone out of his pocket and handed it to me. "I will contact you with this if necessary." It was an old-appearing phone, and not capable of much other than making calls, texting, and telling time. I missed my smartphone.

Instead of excusing himself out of the room, he continued to stand next to me. There was an awkward silence for what felt like several minutes.

Finally, L brought his thumb up to his mouth while giving me one of his half-lidded smiles, which I was coming to associate with him being gross.

"What are you wearing?" he murmured softly. Was he … blushing?

"Excuse me?!" I shrieked at him.

"I didn't mean your underwear, I meant your perfume. Although now that you mention it … "

I cut him off before he could continue. "That's still a little inappropriate to ask a woman you just met, L."

"It's the Tocca one, isn't it?"

He was right. I didn't have a lot of spending money most of the time, but perfumes were one of my guilty pleasures. Tocca's Florence was one of my favorites.

L finally excused himself. I locked the door behind him, although I knew that if he really wanted to get in, he probably could quite easily. I looked through the items on the fancy vanity. Yes, there was a brand new bottle of Florence. Exactly how much did L know about me? It occurred to me that he probably had some sort of surveillance on me. Hopefully he kept his pants on if that was the case. I knew I should be freaked out and making my escape, but strangely, I wasn't. Despite his odd personality, I could tell that he was extremely intelligent – maybe that was it. I found intelligence to be very attractive in a man. Even if they were hot in every other way, stupidity was a giant turn-off for me. My friends thought this was strange and said I had strange taste in men, but whatever.

I immediately chastised myself when I realized what I was thinking. What was wrong with me? I decided that it would be a good idea to turn my mind off for a while, and after settling in the comfy, fluffy bedding of the canopied bed, I took a nap.


End file.
